Current controllers for game console machines come in many configurations. The most typical is that popularized by the Sony Playstation™, Microsoft Xbox™, Nintendo™ and other related game systems, i.e., the gamepad. In this configuration, the user holds the game controller with two hands, and manipulates the controls with his thumbs and fingers. These controllers are designed to fit as wide a segment of their target audience as possible.
An exemplary prior art gamepad is shown in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, the controller segments are shown as: body; arms; and thumb modules. The arms contain various buttons, joysticks, mushrooms or the like.
Games known as “first person shooter” or “FPS” games (games where the player takes the character's viewpoint in a virtual, three-dimensional world, hence “first person”), are typically played on the PC using a combination of a mouse and keyboard. The keyboard is typically used to control the character's displacement in the 3-D world (e.g., “WASD” control, whereby pressing “W” on the keyboard moves the player forward, “A” left, “S” back and “D” right) while the mouse is used to control the character's viewpoint (e.g., moving the mouse to the left and right will rotate his viewpoint left and right, moving the mouse up and down is akin to looking upwards and downwards).
These FPS games (and others) now require a high degree of sophistication that require fine control over the character's view point in order to track (and hence, fire game weapons at and hit) fast moving or “distant” targets in the virtual 3D world. A mouse is ideal for this purpose because it affords a high degree of control to the player. The player moves X distance and his view point correspondingly changes X degrees and stays at this angle until the mouse is moved again.
Console controllers however, typically do not incorporate any device that replicates a mouse in terms of degree of control. The left analog stick, or equivalent digital device, replicates the “WASD” function of the keyboard, and the right analog stick or equivalent digital device controls the viewpoint. However, the right analog stick in this case does not act like the mouse in the previous example. While the player pushes the stick in the desired direction, the character's viewpoint moves in that direction until the player returns the stick to a “neutral” position, at which point the character stops turning. The rate of turn is determined by how much actuation the player puts on the stick (i.e. how “far” he pushes the stick in the desired direction). There is therefore a rather low maximum speed limit at which a turn can be induced, which is problematic for the character if there is a virtual enemy behind him.
This is also a problem for accuracy, since analog sticks are typically more difficult to manipulate than a mouse to get a precise viewpoint. For example, assume “User A” is using a mouse and keyboard. If User A's mouse is configured so that 1 degree of viewpoint change is achieved by 1 mm of movement, User A must “look” directly at and shoot at a target. To UserA's point of view that target is exactly 30 degrees to the right and 10 degrees up from his current point of view. If User A moves his mouse 30 mm to the right and 10 mm up, he knows he will be facing his target with a high degree of consistency. He can undertake this motion as quickly or as slowly as he wishes (assuming the mouse itself has no physical limitations). In effect, substantially instantaneously, he can face his target and shoot at it if his reflexes allow.
“User B,” by way of comparison, is using a console controller, with two joysticks controlled by her thumbs. Let us assume that her right analog “thumbstick” controls the character's view point. Her thumbstick has 5 levels of displacement. At level 1, the smallest level of displacement, a turn is configured at 1 degree per second. At level 2 it is 2 degrees per second and so and so forth until level 5, which is 5 degrees per second. She too must hit a target exactly 30 degrees to the right and 10 degrees up. For User B to hit his target, she can move her thumbstick to the right to displacement level 5 for 6 seconds and up at displacement level 5 for 2 seconds in turn. If she wished to do both at once, she would be faced with the limitation that she would somehow need to stop the upwards motion precisely at the 2 second mark otherwise he would overshoot his target. She also is limited by the maximum rate of turn of this control method.
As can be seen, the control method of User B is not as efficient or precise as the control method of User A. The problem is that for the sake of compactness of the controller, and where a flat surface is not always available (e.g., in the case of a living room where the game is played in the context of a television and a sofa) for a mouse, using a mouse and keyboard may not always be possible or desired.
Certain prior art game controllers allow the analog joysticks to be “clicked” or actuated when pressed downward. As the trackball can replace or supplement the function of at least one of the analog joysticks, a preferred embodiment of the present invention represents an improvement to the idea of having a trackball in a game controller by giving it similar functionality to the analog joystick which it replaces.
Other prior art devices, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,809,722 and U.S. Publication No. 2005/0156891, disclose the use of a trackball that is accessible from multiple directions. They essentially describe device held in one hand, with a trackball on one end. They fail to disclose, however, an integrated trackball/controller combination as described herein.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a game controller that is ergonomic, convenient and powerful. In some embodiments, the game controller requires less movement of the fingers to actuate a button if the trackball is clickable, resulting in less strain and deleterious effects to the wrist, hand and fingers.